The Clinton administration invokes emergency orders to force generators to sell power in California after they refuse state utilities on the grounds that they're credit risks.

SCE, later joined by Gov. Gray Davis, sues the FERC for failing to ensure reasonable wholesale electricity rates.

2001

Jan. 2001: The credit ratings of PG&E and SCE are downgraded to junk status, and the CPUC approves temporary rate increases of 7% to 15% for PG&E and SCE customers. The ISO orders rolling blackouts in northern and central California.

The Bush administration extends an emergency order forcing power companies to sell to California but warns that it's the last extension.

February 2001: The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) uses state bonds to begin buying energy (effective through December 2002) for the state's three investor-owned utilities. The DWR signs more than 50 long-term power deals to build the state's reserves.

March 2001: The state approves major retail customer rate increases. The first statewide rolling blackouts are declared during a Stage 3 emergency.

The ISO asks the FERC to investigate alleged overcharges by power generators.

The FERC orders wholesale power sellers to justify their rates or refund tens of millions of dollars to the utilities. Davis announces a 20/20 plan, offering consumers 20% rebates on their electric bills if they reduce consumption by 20%.

June 2001: The FERC extends California's price cap to spot market sales in California and the 10 states within the Western Systems Coordinating Council.

September 2001: PG&E files its bankruptcy reorganization plan.

October 2001: Retail market choice is suspended in California.

2002

January 2002: California's attorney general files suit against PG&E, claiming it diverted billions from its regulated utility into unregulated affiliates.

The company's utility unit counters with a claim that the state violated the deregulation law when it refused to let the utilities sell power generated by the facilities it still owned.

PG&E and the CPUC take their rival restructuring plans to bankruptcy court.

February 2002: A federal judge rejects PG&E's restructuring plan. The state asks the FERC to review some long-term power deals, saying power sellers illegally drove up prices and forced the state into lengthy, unfair contracts.

CA Attorney General Bill Lockyer files suit against four energy companies, charging that they helped engineer the state's energy crisis.

State officials rework eight contracts with four power companies, cutting them from $15 billion to $11.4 billion.

May 1, 2002: ISO submits a plan for a revised market to FERC, calling for extended price caps. Class-action lawsuits pile up on behalf of customers who want their money back from energy companies that inflated prices.

May 6, 2002: Internal Enron documents released by FERC reveal that Enron traders created false congestion on California's power transmission grid.

May 16, 2002: The CPUC orders public hearings on SDG&E attempts to settle a dispute with the commission over whether it must return to retail customers the $425 million in profits it made during the crisis.

CA Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove), chairman of the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation of the Wholesale Energy Market, accuses the California ISO of asking traders to buy more power than was needed at above-market rates in 2001.